Axle finishing help

[Mackus84]

Can i bring this puppy back to life? Ive already redone the shock and swingarm. I polished the shock damper and painted the spring. Stripped and painted swingarm, but not sure on the axle. Being steel, Can it be "polished out" and cleared which is what id prefer, or should i just save my energy and sand and paint/powdercoat?

[yaegerb]

Have it re-nickeled. FlyingW has a really good plater. I would send it to him.

[Mackus84]

Yeah, im looking for a little more of an economical approach. Gonna have to put a few hundred into the engine build, so was hoping for a solution i could tackle myself, or locally. I looked, no platers within an hour or so of me from what i could tell. Was hoping it was something i could do in the garage

[El Camexican]

You should be able to polish it up at home if you have a drill and some sanding drums (flap wheels?) I'm not sure of the name, but I used them with a die grinder to clean mine up and then hand sanded it till it was polished. If you had the trike assembled and up on blocks you could just leave it in gear and polish the axle with emery cloth too.

I polished mine and then shot it with clear coat in a can. After a few years it started to yellow. Keep in mind if you plan to use the trike at all the clear will rub of and the axle will rust. I removed it tonight to change my swing-arm and will be removing the clear. Then I think I'll leave it bare and keep wiping it with WD-40. This is a really half azzed way to do it, but it should look pretty if I keep it oiled.

If you go to my page and look at "My Toys" there are some before and after photos of mine.

[Georgiabii]

Chuck it up in the lathe and it'll come out smooth and shiny as new!

[Mackus84]

I got it to this point so far and it started like this . So progress is being made. But there is some pitting a little so cant get this stuff out to really get it to shine im using a rust removing pad and some brillo pads but cant it past this point

[atc007]

Like El said.. I use degreaser,,get it spotless. You don't want to drive the rust and grease into the pores. By far the quickest and easiest is emery cloth. Rather the bikes in gear,or on a stand doing it manually. It doesn't take any time at all. you can polish it till it's damn near chrome or stop at around a factory finish. Clean it with ether/alcohol,and be ready to quickly clear coat it with Rust Oleum and you are g2g for years. You will be thrilled with the outcome.

[Mackus84]

Like El said.. I use degreaser,,get it spotless. You don't want to drive the rust and grease into the pores. By far the quickest and easiest is emery cloth. Rather the bikes in gear,or on a stand doing it manually. It doesn't take any time at all. you can polish it till it's damn near chrome or stop at around a factory finish. Clean it with ether/alcohol,and be ready to quickly clear coat it with Rust Oleum and you are g2g for years. You will be thrilled with the outcome.

Maybe thats my problem. Ive been using 3m wet or dry sandpaper as well rather than emery cloth. Think thatll be the difference maker? And my local HD has coarse, medium, and fine. They dont have grits per say like sandpaper